Kansas Bill Would Expand Anti-Bias Laws to Gays

A Kansas House Democrat has drafted a new proposal to bar discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports (http://bit.ly/1fSEpUo ) that Kansas City Rep. Louis Ruiz presented his proposal Tuesday during a meeting of the House Federal and State Affairs Committee. The panel agreed to sponsor it.

Such proposals have failed to pass several times in recent years in the Republican-controlled Legislature. Expanding anti-discrimination laws to protect gays, lesbians, bisexuals and the transgendered against bias in employment, housing and public accommodations is a key goal of the gay-rights group Equality Kansas.

The bill’s introduction came a month after the House passed a "religious freedom" bill that critics said would allow widespread discrimination in the name of protecting gay-marriage opponents from fines and lawsuits.

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Comments

Jon Will, 2014-03-12 23:05:09

Does anyone else get tired of reading about various jurisdictions voting about whether or not we should be granted our Constitutional rights. Let’s get it over with and work on a federal law that states that LGBT people are U.S. citizens and are entitled to all the rights and privileges of other citizens and have done with it once and for all. AND CAN INTERNET JOURNALISTS GET IT INTO THEIR HEADS THAT NOT ALL GAY PEOPLE ARE WHITE MEN. Just once I’d like to see an article about LGBT rights illustrated with a couple of lesbians and/or non-white men.

Having won a key legislative fight with social conservatives in Kansas, gay rights advocates aren’t content with simply blocking a measure they said would discriminate against gays and lesbians in the name of religious freedom.